Far Side of the World

I've been to a decent amount of countries in my 18 years life experience--But I have yet to see a more beautiful, more awe inspiring place than Pioneer Pacific Camp on Thetis Island.

This place has so many memories and feelings attached to it! I have been going to this camp since I was...13! I was a Girl's Camp camper two times, then I did Pioneer Youth Crew for two more years and finally Leader In Training! I missed being there last year and saddly I will miss this coming one aswell.

I just wanted to share with you my favorite place. I know that everyone of us has a place that just makes them feel alive and refreashed and inspired. This is mine.

The past few weeks have been going well. As I have mentioned I am working for Dad around the house. Its nice to see some progression in the work; every little splash of paint painted, every little screw screwed is a little closer to a finished house.

Matt, a fellow student from the S/Y Next Wave, just visited me for a couple days! It was so awesome to hang out with him. I am really missing all of my shipmates, so it was encouraging to spend time with him. We had.....quite the adventure on Gabriola Island....which I wont write about here because it would take a long time. But I will say that it involved me locking my keys in the car and the three of us (Helen as well) quickly becoming the biggest form of entertainment on the island. You should have seen the crowd.

I am hoping to be back in Europe in three months...Its coming faster than I'd thought it would.

Well, although DTS is over, my adventure seems to be just beginning. During the last week of DTS I really felt the Next Wave ministry on my heart and believe that God is calling me back!

It's a scary thing though. Seems like I've been through so much in the past 6 months, how could I survive another? I'm so happy to be home again and see all my old friends and my family. And to be in my belonging place. I think that everybody has a belonging place, a place where they simply fit in to a tee, a place where they can walk down the street and it just works. Well that place for me is home. And it's something that I have been looking forward to for a long time, so to think about leaving it again and live a roaming life has some unappeal to it as well. Yet on the other hand I do love traveling. It is the kind of life that I have always dreamed of, a life of adventures and new things. Its a harder life to be sure, but one that has always been calling to me. I love the excitement of walking down roads I've never been down before and trying to explain things to people when I don't speak their language. I love the thrill of going on deck and seeing a whole new city laid before me beckoning for me to explore.

So while it is a hard thing to do, to leave, at the same time it is very exciting because I have no clue as to where this life will take me.

As for specific plans of my future........well I am hoping to leave Canada in Mid January. And meet up with the Next Wave in Catania, Italy (on the island of Sicily). When I get there we will sail to the island of Cyprus (Eastern Mediterranean Sea). Then a SBS (School of Biblical Studies) will come aboard for a while. During their stay they will be studying Paul's journeys...so we will sail it as we study it and end up in Greece. After the SBS we are hopefully going to head up to the Black Sea and do Medical Missions (like Mercy Ships) in the ports for a few months. After which we are expecting to hold another Discipleship Training School (like the one that I just finished). I am planning on being staff/crew on the boat for 1 year.

Until then I am working full time for my dad building our house. It's not my favorite thing to do at all, but it is nice to work for him. I am also quite busy with The Bridge (evening service), singing.

I hope that life is going well for all of you. Take care and if you care about me make sure that you see me before I leave in January (haha I'm just kidding kind of).

Takin the next step,

Hey Everyone!!!

I thought that I should sum up this section of my blog with how DTS ended.

Well the Dominican was very intense...right till the end. In total we had four hurricanes: Gustave, Hannah, Ike, and Josephine. The day before we left the van broke down and the guys had tried to fix it, but weren't sure that it was drivable. The night (well early morning at 3am) that we left Raul's house we left while a hurricane was ripping across the island (mostly over Haiti). We didn't have working head lights...and the bridge was out on the only road to Santo Domingo. The drive may have been the creepiest drive I've ever been on. There was rain pouring down the windows and the windshield whippers were making that squeaky sound they often make. Booming thunder that went right through your bones occurred every couple minutes followed by the brightest lightning that I'd ever seen. It felt like I was in some kind of suspense movie. We made it first over the mountains (thank God) and then got to the river where an armed guard told us we could cross "carefully"...what ever that meant. As we neared the end of the two lane bridge there was a spot light dragged to the end where we could see in the light that half of the bridge had collapsed!!! The left hand lane! There were cracks running along the road we were driving along and the swollen river raged beneath us. We made it with a lot of prayer. After crossing it we were so happy to have an easier rest of the drive...but little did we know that we hadn't even begun. After driving a little while saw a big truck pulled to the side of the road and two armed men ran into the middle of the road dragging a "detour" sign. It looked very suspicious and we all held our breaths. But we followed their directions and drove down a side road into the middle of the muddy dessert. Not a soul to be seen...nor did we want to see one since it is very common for bandits to roam that part of the desserts. We then saw a shiny line snake across the road ahead. And with a flash of lightning the whole scene ahead was brightly displayed: a crashing river ran across the road ahead with a steep hill on the other side. Who knew if our van would make it up the hill let alone the river and currant. The river came up to my knees and was only getting deeper. Then a papaya truck randomly pulled up behind us--although I believe God sent it to us in our time of need. The driver took a bunch of us in his truck so that the van would be lighter and then van rammed the river. She gave it all she had and...made it!! Although we did get lost later on,...it was a very easy drive that. We made it to the airport with 10 minutes to spare.

We were so thankful when we made it to Liverpool. Some of the crew met us weary travelers at the bus station and I was never so happy to see a familiar face! We were very excited (beneath our tiredness) to be back on the boat again! It was like going home. Same ship, I had my same cabin with my same room mates and same bunk. Ahhhhh....it was glorious. We were also impressed that there was reliable electricity and plumbing!!!! Although that was nice we also went into culture shock because of the climate difference. England had had a cold summer and we rapidly found all our sweaters and scarfs and bundled up.

During the last 10 days we spent most of our time sharing stories and laughing and spending time with each other. It was the perfect end to an incredible 6 month journey.

Hey everyone! Been a long time. Im sory about that. DTS has been going very well, as for the out reach I have been pushed harder than I probably ever thought even possible. You can take that as you like, either positive or not. Haha no im just kidding ofcourse. It has been really good. But easy is not a work that I would use to describe it at all.

aAs of today we leave in 5 days for Liverpool, England. Where we will be spending 10 days on the Next Wave with all the DTS students and staff. We are all looking forward to seeing eachother again and live on the boat.

So the end is near. Im a bit torn as to what I think about that. Wheather I am happy or sad or excited or scared. It has deffenently been the longest six months of my life. Honestly I feel like ive aged at least 5 years. But during thoughs 6 months I have really become part of a international family here. I love everyone here so much. Its true that you grow closer though tough times…and I think that living on a boat counts and also a poor latin American country. So as you can imagen, we are all very close. Yet, I still am really excited to step off that last plane (I have to take 4 to get home) and be on Canadian soil again, to see my friends and family and aaron again. I cant wait to sleep in my own bed (not having to share it with anyone), having space and quietness, and being able to speak English again with people. Also having a bath is top on the list and eating mom’s cooking.

I think that the hardest part about living in the Republica Dominicana is….well everything. But no, let me explain. Its really living in a culture that is so backwards to mine. Not that mine is a better one at all but its just really difficult to live where they way that you live and the way that you were brought up is all different. The food, the language, the weather (gah, so hot here), the wildlife, the music, the volume that everything is here (so laud the speakers crackle and no cars/motercycles have mufflers), and latino time is hard to get used to. So ya, its everything. like its an adventure deffenently but it does wear you down after a while. And im just going to be so happy to fit into a culture again.

As far as stuff that we have been doing, we’ve been doing a crazy amount of stuff. We’ve run three full sets of Daily Vacation Bible School. These went well. We had between 26 kids one school to over 550 on another. So we’ve learned how to deal with many kid situations. We also fed the kids sandwhiches and learned how to make over 550 sandwhiches in about an hour and a half. We’ve also built a roof and floor on the back of the church for Sunday school. This room has already been very well used. And also cleared a HUGE field of thorn trees with machetes! Someday this field is going to be used as a sport field—something that doesn’t really exist is azua. And aaaaalso, we’ve painted all the walls in both the school and the kindergarten, both inside and out. We first steccoed the walls, then painted them bright colors and are now in the middle of painting murrels in them! And one cool thing about this is that the church didn’t have any money to do these things with (that’s why they haven’t been done before) and neither did we. All the money was donated and such a blessing for these people. Maybe painting a school doesn’t sound like an important thing, but its really important actually. Its giving the kids something to be proud in their school. Its getting them excited to go to school and making it a funner learning environment as well. Plus, ive noticed that its really helped keep the buildings cleaner and less insects. (we found a taranchula in there the other day). So yeah, God has been working crazy miricals here, and though you guys! Thank you so much!!

I have also been learning a lot being here. About how to live in a culture that is so different than mine and how to get along with people that work in a way so different. About how God works when you are willing to be used by him. About faith, and what it means to live by it and what that looks like. About poverty and the roots of it and how westerners should be responding and that its actually quite different than the way it is potrayed to us. About being pushed out of my comfort zone and giving up my rights and using my gifts/talents to help out in any way possible. Resently my camera has broken and God is even teaching me a lot through this as well, and about how to get along with out.

The Dominican republic is quickly approaching hurricane season. We have already had two come through the island in the past two weeks and are expecting a third to hit this weekend. We have all been safe though, for those of you who may be wondering. Azua is actually surrounded by mountains that protect it from hurricain weather. So we’ve been having a lot of rain. But nothing too serious. We had to push the van once in the pouring rain because it was in a puddle to deep and got wet, but that’s the most that weve really had to deal with it. Hati has been having a hard time though.

looking forward to the next few days here. then its back home!!!!! cant wait to see you all! take care and keep praying.